So the other night, for the first time in a long while (moving house, building work, renovations, getting married... Basically life got in the way for about 5 years) I got out my good trusty Skywatcher 130P (I think that's the model anyway) and popped it on my driveway to see what I could see.
First problems I've had noticed was that some trees had grown, and were slap bang between me and Saturn and Jupiter. So my original plan wasn't going to happen. Still, I had a look round, admired a couple of clusters and generally had a peer at what was happening. Then, as it's October and Mars is flavour of the month, I swung round to have a look.
And I must admit, it was disappointing. I know I only have stock lenses (25mm and 10mm) along with a 2x Barlow, but I was kind of hoping to see more than a "bit of an off white dot" as my wife put it.
I was looking at it pretty low in the sky, so lots of atmosphere. Using stock, rather than posh expensive, lenses. But I was still hoping for something more.
Am I being too optimistic for seeing more from Mars with my equipment? I have been meaning to get myself something in the range of a higher end eyepiece, but not sure where's best to spend my money as far as that is concenred.